Rachael and I decided to walk over and join Darren and Dad at the fence, so we could watch Dale and Boone.
"That was an awesome wheelie, man! Lohnes and Freiburger were bragging on you over the loud speaker", Dad crowed.
"It wasn't awesome in the driver's seat", I shook my head.
"Dude", Darren smiled and slapped me on the back, "Not one person is going to remember if you ran 10.20 or 9.60 on that pass...but they are sure going to recall that wheelie, that's how you make an impression!"
My phone went off in my hand, and I looked down to see the text from my wife. "Ben and I saw your wheelie on the live feed! They even put it on slow motion replay, Cool!"
I watched a set go down then checked my phone again. Two more friends had texted about the wheelie...apparently I was the only one who didn't like it!

Dale and the Gremlin left the line extremely soft, then I saw him lift momentarily and cram back on the gas. The nitrous finally activated at around a hundred feet out, then it ran hard to a 9.36-153.
"He didn't re-adjust the throttle again, so it didn't activate the full throttle switch", I shook my head.
"He's passing guys on the return road", Darren pointed, as Boone was backing up from his burnout.
"Yeah, he's trying to get back in line for another hit", I explained.
Boone left hard in the Duster, but it wiggled around at the shift to second. The popping on the nitrous didn't start until around a thousand feet this time, so maybe by the time Drag Week was over, they would have the carb dialed in. His board lit up with a 10.08-133.95.
"He'll be happy with that", Dad commented.
"Yeah...he'll save the attempt for a nine until tomorrow", I agreed.

Dale came into our pit area, already half out of the car, and asking for help with the hood. He grabbed tools and adjusted the throttle as I held the hood up, with Billy in the car going from idle to WOT. Lohnes had already made the call over the PA that lanes would close in ten minutes.
"It looked really smooth on the launch", I commented.
Dale looked visibly upset, which is a rarity for him. "When I was under the car putting the new bolt in the ladder bar, I realized Brian must've zeroed out the rebound on my rear shocks when he put the new front end under it last year! That's why it's been blowing the tires off and slamming back down...and I've been trying to fix it by adjusting the front of the car!"
"Why would he touch the rear shocks", I asked.
"Not a clue...probably meant to re-set them and just forgot, but I've been chasing it for a Drag Week and a half!"
I bolted the hood back down as he pulled his gear back on, fired the car, and headed back up to the lanes.

Dale was two cars behind John Faraone, who wasn't about to drive his Australian 72 Chrysler Valiant Charger to Columbus if there was still track time left to be had at Indy! The big slicks lurched hard until about twenty feet out, then the TT Wedge shut off clean and the silver beast coasted to a stop at 500 feet out. A track worker ran out and picked up a shredded cogged belt off the track which looked to be the size used on an MSD front mount distributor. By the time they pushed him off the track, it was 2:38pm, and the lanes were closed.